It's Always GoodBye
by Kirei Ryuusei
Summary: Ange has always had her life torn apart. She's hated it. Saying good-bye to all the good in her life. One-shot.


Yo, I'm Kirei Ryuusei. This is a drabbish (?) sort of one-shot.

Good-bye.

Good-bye seemed like the only words that were common to me. I remember when I was squeaking a farewell to my older brother. Sick with a fever, as he and our parents were departing for Rokkenjima. His smile beaming as he proclaimed "I'll return to you, I promise. You just get better, Ange"

I still recall his lumbering figure enter a sleek black limousine. His disheveled crimson hair fluttering with his confident stride. As the door shut with a THUNK the dark tinted windows rolled down. My brother's beaming grin as he said "Ja ne, Ange!"

I smiled as I waved "Ja ne!"

Days passed. Anxiously I awaited my family's return to me. Where my parents would embrace me and for Battler return to play with me. Like a flower patiently waiting for the light to break through the darkness. However, my sunshine never rose. Dawn never happened. An eternal twilight loomed as a beating came from the door.

As soon as the door opened, there was a woman standing before me. She was pretty, with orange hair in a bun, but that beauty was lost behind a scowl formed on her face. An oriental dress was her garb with a large folding fan in her slender hands. Her voice laced with resentful venom queried "Are you Ushiromiya Ange?"

The terrifying beauty made me want to withdraw. Just slam the door in her face. Maybe that would've made the nightmare disappear. I regret not trying to avoid the lady's message.

"Ushiromiya Ange, I am your oba-san, Ushiromiya Eva, your family has died on Rokkenjima. Since both most of your other guardians have also died, I am the only one left as your guardian." she coldly reported to me.

Warm tears began spilling. Otou-san, oka-san, onii-chan....they're all dead? I refused to believe it. They were going on a vacation and coming back. That's right...onii-chan even promised me he'd come back to me. He couldn't be gone! He just couldn't!

I wiped at the water falling from my eyes with my hands. The tears refused to stop. I started hiccupping as I continued, oblivious to my aunt's growing fury. Clear droplets ran down my cheeks until...

WHAP!

A sharp pain was on my cheek. Throbbing and numb where a handprint was. I held onto the sore area and gazed mournfully at my assailant. Eva towered over my six-year-old body. Her frown only deepened "Stop crying! It's disgraceful! Now you're under my charge so now you will act like an Ushiromiya."

That was the beginning to my misery, and the end to the joy I held. Good-bye...my family, my old life...

Eva was never the mother I knew. If anything she was my jailer, I, her prisoner. Bound to the business and professionalism of the Ushiromiya family. I, Ushiromiya Ange, remained the sole heir to the family's fortune. I knew that Eva never wished for this. She had a son, a promising businessman, George. He along with her danna departed from the world, like my own. My punishment was her harsh farewell to her beloved...

Enrolled in the St. Lucia Academy, forced me to reside among the richer, more prosperous people's daughters. A bitter end to the Halcyon Days. Before my endless nightmare I had many friends in the school I attended. However, unlike the student that I was accustomed to, these girls merely stared at me with piercing stony eyes. Good-bye to my carefree ways, replaced with solitude.

"What's with these stupid hair accessories?" one of those cruel-hearted girls, Catherine, demanded. Her hand gripped my crimson hair. The hair like my older bother. I winced at pain as she tugged at my locks "Aren't we in middle school? You shouldn't be wearing such childish things"

I've surrendered my previous lifestyle. My mannerism and attitude were forced to change. Even my caretakers had shifted. I said good-bye to them all. However, those hair 'childish' hair barrettes were the only fragment of my broken old life I was able to keep and I refused to bid adieu to that as well.

"Oi, oi, what's wrong with an unique sense of style?" a voice, one that I'd always be grateful for, called.

Takahara Miharu. In the same grade as I was, though she was a year younger because of her birthday. Her dark green hair was always tied from her face and hazel eyes that had held mischief. Miharu, as far as I heard, was the resident rebel. Though she was a straight A student with a hand in almost all activities, she got in trouble often. Her record of 'altercation' with other students and her 'indecency' of her uniform were proof.

Miharu hung her elbow on Catherine's shoulder. A sly smirk graced her face "You know demoralizing a fellow classmate is against the student behavior of St. Lucia, Cathy."

"Takahara, don't talk like we're familiars" Catherine glared at her as she pushed Miharu's elbow off.

"Well we are" the green-haired lady replied "You and I have been in the same grade since elementary. I've been invited to a few of your gatherings as well. Plus you know my name, so wouldn't that not make us familiars, or acquaintances?"

She was right on that point. I was surprised when she hung her arm on my shoulders "So, let's be nice ladies, ne? C'mon Ange-chan."

I was led away from those girls I despised so much. And was led to a new light, a star within my darkness.

"Hey, Ange-chan!" I heard Miharu call "Let's have lunch together!"

Slightly taken back, I stuttered "B-But you don't even know me"

Hazel eyes stared at my blue ones "So? Isn't that the point of having lunch with a person?"

"You shouldn't involve yourself with me, no one cares to stay near me" I warned.

Again she responded "So? No one likes me, so that's not a problem!"

Quickly, I became friends with Miharu. Our relationship was rather strange. The green-haired girl's energetic personality clashed with my own stoic personality. Though I never admitted it to anyone, Miharu was my own family. Eva-oba-san knew that and yelled at me to stop interacting with her. However, I refused to give up this miniature paradise that I found.

Then that day came.

"You're going where?" I asked my 'sister'.

She sadly repeated "America. My father has major business there. So me and my mom are moving with him to New York in America. But don't worry; we'll come back here for holidays. And there's a such thing as calling and letters you know."

Miharu seemed to have this unnatural ability to know what I'm thinking. She was saying that to assure our relationship would not falter with distance. I thought that I was losing that sanctuary, that home, I had found in her. I hated how I had to say good-bye to that as well.

I went to the airport to see her off. Her arms wrapped around me in an embrace. I swore I felt droplets fall onto my clothes just as clear water ran down my cheeks. I was saying good-bye. Another thing torn from life.

Something cold was placed around my neck. I looked down to see a chain with a key on the end. It was Miharu's heirloom from her grandmother. She smiled "It fits you well, Ange-chan."

"Miharu! You can't give me this!" I cried.

"Why not?" her hazel eyes glinted with mischief "It's my necklace after all. I want you to keep it. Just so you have your own paradise in this cruel life of yours. It's not 'sayonara' it's 'ja ne' get it?"

My eyes widened "Wha--"

"Miharu, hurry!"

Her arms embraced me once again. Before she was taking off to catch up with her parents. She turned back around and waved. Her voice called through the bustling airport "Ja ne Ange-chan! See you again!"

I waved back. Once hand in the air, the other clinging to my sister's gift. I could never say good-bye to her. Or so I thought.

Miharu had told me that she'd take a while calling me with moving and everything. I could wait. But soon I was checking my phone often. Waiting for the mailman to come by so I could see if there was a letter. Nothing. Eventually I heard what had happened. Miharu had died in a plane crash. There was no corpse to be flown back. However there was still a service. That day I wore all white as I wept. She told me that it wasn't ever good-bye. However, she was now dead. There was no way for her to come back to me! No way to laugh or talk with her! It was lie, but it was a lie that I so wished to indulge in until I departed the world as well. Good-bye. Good-bye my first friend.

"Come back...come back quickly, onii-san!" I cried as I embraced him "Don't leave me all alone!"

_Don't make me give up anything else! _

"Who....are you?" Battler asked with those hazy blue eyes.

No. No...NO! I don't want to say good-bye to my brother. My dear brother. Tears welled at the thought of it. I half-whispered "It's me. Ange."

"No one ever comes back..." I've departed with my parents

I've given my farewell to my once happy life "I'm lonely..."

"I beg you, come back quickly!" I wrap tighter against him. I've mourned for my best friend.

"You're...Ange?!" he called.

My tears sting as they drip down staining my face and onii-san's clothes "That's right...I'm Ange. No one in my family ever returned from Rokkenjima..."

It's just been a living Hell. And it's all their faults, the ladies that are silently snickering as I'm soon to be penalized "You're the only one who can defeat them! Do it! And take our family back! Come back to me!"

"Ange!" He called my name. How long I've missed that voice calling to me. Hello. That's how I wanted to greet the sound.

A pain began racing through my muscles and skin. I bite my lip. I don't want my scream to ruin this moment of reunion. I feel as a trail of red slithered down my face "Ange...."

"In order to come here there are one rule I had to follow no matter what. I wasn't allowed to let you find out that I'm Ange." I held fast to his arms and buried my face in his jacket. I don't want him to see me in this state, coming undone and yet coming together.

I love and hate this moment. It's like a passing of former classmates. They greet happily before returning to their status quo "Now that you know, I can't be with you anymore..."

"Ange?" How I wanted him to keep beckoning to me. A melody I wished to never to end in my ears. To not have to say good-bye to it.

"But this is okay. You must..." A red puddle was spreading on the ground. It's so bittersweet. We meet again and yet I still have to exit this stage "You must come home. Your little sister is waiting for you...at your home. That person isn't me...But that way you little sister will be saved."

"Ange!" My sights are stained with a mixture of tears and my own blood. The pain never ceased as I have the feeling of being pulled like a stuffed animal. Was this how it felt Sakutaro?

"I wanted to stay with you. I wanted to help you so much more..." I was a pawn that had been evolved to the power of the queen. Yet so early I have been removed. I deeply wanted to remain being at your side. I wouldn't have minded that I've would've been thrown away...as long as I knew that I hadn't parted with you those twelve years ago "Sorry..."

"Ange I'll come home." Onii-chan please do that. For my sake, "I'll come home...no matter what!"

"Let me see the coolest part of you one last time..." I selfishly asked. If I have sing my swan song, allow it to be of you, onii-chan "Proclaim that the game will now resume!"

My vision was black. Silence hummed in my ears. Touch was useless. So this is my demise?

So long I've had repeated 'good-bye' to all I've seen in my life. It's been painful. It's been lonely and heart-wrenching. If my life is only meant to remain in a loop of exiting and abandon, then...at the very least I want someone else to escape this grief-stricken path.

Hey, Ange of 1986...be the opposite of who I am. Instead of always saying 'Good-bye', be the one to always say 'Hello'.

No flames I beg of you! This was a randomish, sort of thing. I was wondering on what Ange's thoughts would've been during her life. So hope you liked it. Thank you for your time reading it.


End file.
